The present invention concerns improving the performance of a conventional double flyer winder used for winding coils of wire in the slots of an electric motor armature. Conventional winders of this type where the invention can be applied are described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,927,469.
The present invention is directed to improving the operations of these winders, particularly when the wires used to wind the armature coils need to be changed. Such a wire change is required whenever wire disposed between a wire supply spool and one or more of the flyer winder's flyers lacks the specifications required for winding a subsequent type of armature (e.g., when a subsequent armature requires a different wire diameter or some other wire property). This situation is often referred to as the "change-over" of the winder, and may also be required for other aspects of the winding operation such as wire guide changing and commutator sleeve changing.
During wire change-over, new spools having wires of the required specification are substituted for the wire spools currently feeding the flyer winder's flyers. Accordingly, each new wire is manually threaded from its new wire spool through the winder to its respective flyer. A similar manual threading operation is performed when a wire spool being used to wind armatures runs out of wire and the spool must be replaced by a new spool having wire with the same specifications. This situation is often referred to as spool "replacement."
When either wire change-over or spool replacement is performed for a conventional double flyer winder, rotation of the winder's flyers must be halted, the previously wound armature must be removed, and the new wires must be manually threaded through the many components of the winder. Such manual threading is time consuming and inefficient, and significantly reduces the productivity of conventional double flyer winders. Accordingly, a need exists for methods and apparatus that allow wire change-over and spool replacement to be quickly and efficiently performed within a flyer winder.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide methods and apparatus that allow wire change-over and spool replacement to be quickly and efficiently performed within a double flyer winder. These methods and apparatus significantly increase the productivity of such winders.